


We'll Always Be

by kanekiki



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: First Kiss, First Time, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, graduation waaa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 05:03:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10734660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanekiki/pseuds/kanekiki
Summary: And suddenly, it all clicks together in place, like it always seems to do with the both of them involved.





	We'll Always Be

Ritsu likes reassurance, Mao knows this.

He thinks it may be an effect of Rei leaving that one time, or Ritsu just has separation anxiety or abandonment issues, either way—Ritsu craves someone with permanence in his life, and that person happens to be Mao.

Mao doesn’t mind it, at all. It keeps him busy, even if he may complain about Ritsu being attached to his hip at all times, he would even go as far to say that he likes Ritsu’s clinginess

Mao recalls their fight in the springtime, the time Ritsu got upset when Mao couldn’t remember a childhood memory, and that’s when he realized just how much Ritsu doesn’t like things changing, even if it is in the past, he didn’t realize how precious even memories are to him.

Most of all, Ritsu hates when things aren’t constant, probably a side effect from how much he sleeps, it leaves him not wanting to be forgot about or left behind, like when he wakes up everything will be the same with not much happening while he’s unconscious.

Mao would say it is a ridiculous way to live, but he can’t when he’s the one who spoils Ritsu the most.

It’s only natural that Mao tries his best to not let Ritsu down.

 

\---

 

It’s over.

Their mouths disconnect abruptly from an experimental kiss, realization coming in crashing waves. Mao, he realizes, had just kissed his childhood friend—his best friend, because of an impulse. It’s not so much an impulse on Mao’s part as they both agreed to do it, but impulsive that he actually went through with it without thinking twice about it.

Mao remembers it well when it gets brought up, randomly by Ritsu—an innocent pact they made when they were kids, that if they didn’t kiss anyone else by the time they were both seventeen, they would give their first kiss to each other.

Thinking back, it was a really stupid idea even if they were just kids, Mao has been seventeen for a few months now and Ritsu’s eighteen and he honestly thought Ritsu would forget about it, but he should know better that Ritsu tends to never let things go.

His ears burn hotly as he pulls away from Ritsu, eyes still closed and heart beating so hard with the anticipation of seeing Ritsu’s response. He waits several agonizingly long seconds until he gets a grip of all his senses again, coming down from the shock of a rush, the adrenaline of doing something he knows he shouldn’t be doing.

It shouldn’t be that big of a deal, it was just a kiss, chaste and simple—at first but ended up turning into them very clumsily making out in Ritsu’s bed, Ritsu somehow ended up in his lap and then they both started grabbing at each other, making it seem a lot more than just an experimental thing between friends.

Ritsu’s hand is still placed on the side of his neck, one hand gripping the back of his hair. Mao keeps his hold of Ritsu’s waist with both arms from where he’s seated in his lap, arms loosening only slightly due to nervousness.

Mao feels the soft fan of breath over his face, can feel Ritsu’s eyelashes grazing across the tips of his cheeks, and Mao cracks his eyes open only a bit, still not ready to own up to the unknown consequences from doing this.

As he expected, Ritsu looks terrified, like he thinks he messed up and it relieves Mao more than he’d like to admit to know that Ritsu is just as lost as he is right now.

What Mao doesn’t expect is for Ritsu to whisper, voice shaking,

“Does this change everything?” The tone of his voice is awfully quiet and not demanding which is kind of alarming and very much not like Ritsu. It’s also unlike Ritsu to vocalize his fears, he usually expects Mao to already know without saying it.

Mao opens his eyes fully, seeing that Ritsu’s expression has turned impassive but his eyes are giving him away—he’s not only scared but also confused.

“I don’t know.”

Mao answers truthfully, because honestly, how is he supposed to know? This should change everything, even if it was a result of two teen boys experimenting because their hormones got the better of them, even if Ritsu did come to regret it, or both of them making the mistake of crossing a red-lined boundary between friends and something more.

“You’re supposed to know, Maa-kun knows everything.” Mao hears the pleading undertone in Ritsu’s voice. Ritsu tends to do that a lot, rely on Mao to make everything better, but Mao is not confident if there’s anything he can do now.

Mao sighs, glancing off to the side; he can’t think properly staring this close at Ritsu’s face.

He knows, this does change everything and there’s no going back, not with the way Ritsu kissed him, holding his face so gently and carefully, and made him feel like he’s something that’s worthy to be loved in that way, even if it is Ritsu who made him feel like that.

He breathes in deep, trying to carefully choose his next words. It would help if he could actually tell what Ritsu was thinking, if he knew how Ritsu felt about him in a… more than friends sense, it’s all on him if he makes or breaks this relationship and the way it is now.

It could go one of two ways. He tells Ritsu that he loves him, and Ritsu rejects it and Mao probably would be so heartbroken that they can’t be friends anymore—well, maybe not forever but at least until Mao gets over it, he’s not the type that holds grudges, but who knows when that would be—or Ritsu can return those feelings, meaning that they turn into something else from now on.

He just doesn’t know how Ritsu will feel about that, no matter which way this goes. Not that their relationship isn’t already close, and it won’t make much of a difference if they decide to be more than friends, but Mao still feels uneasy.

Mao looks at Ritsu again, neither of them have moved from the position they’re in, and Mao thinks that it has to mean something, so he pulls the back of Ritsu’s neck so their foreheads rest against each other's.

“This won’t change anything about us unless you want it to.” He’ll put his own feelings to the side for Ritsu, he’d rather hurt now then somehow end up hurting the red eyed boy staring at him so openly, like he’s trying to find the answer inside his soul.

“Ah… You sound sad about that.”

“It’s okay, Ritsu. You don’t have to force yourself to change anything for me, we can pretend it never happened.” Mao shakes his head a little bit. “It’s… just—I don’t know, I think it’s just because it was my first kiss, so it’s messing with my head—but I’m glad it was with you, at least. If you don’t want me like that—“

Before Mao can finish the painful sentence, before he can break his own heart, Ritsu hands grips under his chin, tilting his head up and kissing him hard, lips pressed against his and shocking him to the core of his being and spreading warmth all throughout his chest.

It’s not as gentle at first or messy this time but its more firm, as Ritsu’s tongue slips past his parted lips when he gasps, like Ritsu is making an effort in giving him his answer. Mao kisses back harder, hands gripping Ritsu’s sides and pulling him closer, there is nothing experimental about this, it’s affirming.

Ritsu pulls away and sighs happily, trying to catch his breath.

“You scared me, Maa-kun. You worry too much.”

“ _You_ scared me, with you looking at me like you were about to cry because I kissed you!”

Ritsu laughs softly, Mao feels his lips turn into a frown; his emotions are too all over the place right now, going from fear to elated back to confusion within a few minutes.

“As long as my Maa-kun stays by my side, I don’t care what happens.” He smiles, knowingly.

With those simple words, he really has no idea what he was so worried about in the first place. Ritsu has said it before—they are connected by the heart and all, and even if they’re both too stubborn to admit it with words, Mao might think by the slender fingers lightly tugging his hair, and the bright ruby eyes silently asking him for more, that Ritsu might love him back.

“I’m not going anywhere, Ritchan.”

“Hmm, then prove it.”

And yeah, that’s something that Mao can definitely reassure, even though he bites back of the argument that he never goes back on his word, he knows what Ritsu wants—so he doesn’t think twice when he pulls Ritsu into yet another kiss.

 

\---

 

“Does this change everything?”

Ritsu asks while looking up at Mao, completely out of breath and sweat making his bangs stick to his forehead and frame around his face. Mao is also breathless while staying on top of Ritsu, their lips just disconnecting from a desperate, heated kiss. Their breathing is harsh and their voices are both strained from moans of each other’s names.

Mao can’t even think straight, coming down from a high of pure pleasure that happened several seconds ago and he feels his eyes flutter closed for a second, trying to respond to Ritsu’s question. He looks at the evident, lasting blush on Ritsu’s cheeks, and then he looks at their hands still intertwined and framed next to Ritsu’s head, his other arm that holds him up is trembling.

“Yeah, a little, I think…” His vision blurs, head spinning and he notices he’s actually still inside of Ritsu, and Ritsu’s legs that have been wrapped tightly around his waist from the last ten minutes or so have only loosened slightly, still holding on to Mao and keeping him there.

“Ah…” Ritsu pouts—and not one of his fake crybaby pouts when he doesn’t get his way but a genuine look of sadness—before turning his face into the pillow. Mao doesn’t realize what he’s done until Ritsu tries pulling his hand away.

“Come on… Hey.” Mao grips his hand tighter before letting go, in favor of brushing Ritsu’s hair away from his face and leaning down to place a gentle kiss on his forehead. “it’s not a bad thing.”

“It’s not?” Ritsu deadpans like he doesn’t believe Mao, obviously upset from just the word “ _change”_ being brought up after sex, their first time actually going all the way and having it, at that—even if Ritsu was the one who brought it up in the first place.

“Of course not, the only thing it changes is that we can do this more often—maybe.” Mao blushes and glances away sheepishly, in spite of him being the one to suggest it.

“Oh? So that’s how Maa~kun thinks of me now?” Ritsu purrs and gives him a soft smile with narrow eyes, bordering on teasing if he wasn’t so exhausted right now.

“That’s… I’ve thought about you like this for a while now.”

It takes all of his strength to look Ritsu in his eyes as he says it, if there’s one thing he can reassure, it’s that.

“Huh…So Maa-kun is a pervert.” Ritsu blushes when he looks away and it’s not teasing in anyway, something that Mao can see right through, that Ritsu is trying to change the topic and leave it at that.

He forgets that Mao has always been perceptive, especially when it comes to him. “Seriously? What, did you think that this would change my feelings for you, or something? Isn’t it my job to worry? I’ve said it before, Ritchan, I’m not going anywhere.”

Ritsu’s faint blush turns to a pretty shade of red that spreads from the tips of his cheeks all the way down his neck and to his chest, obviously embarrassed and Mao has to hold back a laugh.

“Shut up, Maa~kun, you’re not going anywhere unless I say so anyway, so, fuck me again already.” He groans, shifting his hips to prove a point.

“Geez, man. Even now, you’re still so needy.~” Mao teases him but Ritsu is quick to shut him up with a kiss, and it’s not hard to fall back into the rhythm of each other once more.

The dark red and purple marks he knows he has on his shoulders and the stinging, painful scratches on Mao’s back that he will proudly wear, not only to assure Ritsu that no matter what happens between them they will never change, but it also assures Mao that Ritsu wouldn’t want it any other way and would never let him go.

 

\---

 

They hold hands when they walk home from the graduation ceremony.

“I can’t believe it’s really over…” Mao says out loud and pretty much in disbelief, even though he knows graduating isn’t a big deal at all.

“Mm.” Ritsu responds quietly, hand gripping Mao’s tighter.

Mao honestly expected Ritsu to be more excited about this—now that he’s out of school he’s free to do whatever he wants, and more importantly, he can sleep wherever and whenever he wants in the real world.

Not much is changing at all as they enter the idol industry. Mao is remaining with Trickstar and he’s going to stay with them until the end, whenever that may be.

Ritsu is also continuing being an idol, even though Knights disbanded when Ritsu and Arashi graduated, Tsukasa took the throne as a third year and will carry out the legacy in his own way, according to Ritsu.

Ritsu didn’t mind, which was really odd, seeing that he referred to them as a second family, seeing that Izumi and Arashi left to resume modeling, and Leo with composing, technically leaving him behind but Mao is sure that he doesn’t resent them for it, and he’s accepted it.

Maybe Ritsu has changed, he even offered to join a second year remainder group consisting of Mika and Souma on his own after Mao encouraged him only a little bit.

Mao won’t point that out of course, but it still makes him happy that Ritsu is okay with some things changing, rather than calling it _'being left behind,_ ' he’s moving forward.

“You’re awfully quiet, are you tired from all that? Sorry, I know my closing speech was a little boring, but I didn’t think it was boring enough to put you to sleep, huh…” Mao laughs in an attempt to lighten the mood, breaking Ritsu out of his thoughts.

With a tug on his hand, Ritsu stops walking and looks at him, eyes locked onto Mao like he’s the only thing he sees at the moment, a serious look that Mao rarely sees from him.

“Thank you, Maa~kun.”

And suddenly, it all clicks together in place, like it always seems to do with the both of them involved.

Mao can tell what Ritsu means without words, since Ritsu saying ‘thank you’ for something really means a lot. It basically means the same as, _‘you’ve stayed by my side and I’m grateful’_ and _‘I’m not ever going anywhere either._ ’

It’s because of Mao that Ritsu isn’t afraid to start his new life out of school, because Mao has been that constant reassurance that he needs, and never let him down.

In his own way, Ritsu’s always been there to reassure him as well.

“Anytime, Ritchan.”

**Author's Note:**

> not so much underage, really, but tagged it anyway because yeah uh.  
> this has been sitting in my phone notes for a long long long time so I polished it up and posted it, i hope it's coherent i've rewrote scenarios like this a thousand times over. thank you for reading


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